Somalia

Egypt sends senior military team to Somalia ahead of AU mission deployment CAIRO/MOGADISHU — Egypt has dispatched a high-level military delegation to Mogadishu ahead of the planned deployment of Egyptian troops to the African Union’s new mission in Somalia, signaling fresh momentum in regional security cooperation as Somalia confronts a resilient al-Shabaab insurgency. The 16-member Egyptian team, led by Maj. Gen. Islam Radwan, arrived in the Somali capital on Sunday and was received by officers from the African Union…

Analysis: Northeastern State’s warning shot tests Somalia’s fragile federal bargain Somalia’s most politically assertive region, Northeastern State, has accused President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of trampling the country’s basic rules — and it’s not just a routine war of words. In a sharply worded statement from Garowe, Northeastern State’s leadership warned that what it calls constitutional overreach from the federal center risks tipping the country into crisis unless Somalis agree on a shared path to the next elections. They…

Somalia’s Opposition Sounds the Alarm on Election Timelines and Constitutional Changes Mogadishu’s political center of gravity shifts—again In a city where politics is often as kinetic as the traffic circling KM4, Somalia’s opposition has thrown a sharp new challenge at the government. The Somali Salvation Forum, a coalition led by former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, wrapped up a two-day meeting in Mogadishu by accusing federal authorities of losing focus on the war against al-Shabaab and instead prioritizing the sale of…

Analysis: Aid Spat Between Northeastern State and Mogadishu Exposes Fragile Federal Ties In Somalia’s rugged northeast, where the wind-carved ridges of the Cal Miskaad range fall to the sea, a familiar political quarrel is spilling into the humanitarian lane. Northeastern State officials and Somalia’s national disaster agency are trading accusations over who blocked lifesaving support to freshly secured areas — and why. It’s a dispute with real consequences for wounded soldiers, displaced families and the credibility of a…

Somalia moves against online defamation. The bigger story is who decides what’s dangerous speech—and when In Mogadishu’s humming tea stalls and on the diaspora’s WhatsApp groups from Minneapolis to Mombasa, politics is now a permanent scroll. Somalia’s Office of the Attorney General stepped squarely into that stream this week, announcing a legal push against what it called online insults, defamation, social incitement, offensive images, immoral content, false information, and posts that “promote societal division.” Some…

US-Backed Airstrikes Hit Suspected al‑Shabaab Sites in Central Somalia MOGADISHU, Somalia — A series of powerful airstrikes struck suspected al‑Shabaab hideouts at the edge of Somalia’s Galgaduud and Middle Shabelle regions over the weekend, according to local security sources and residents, in a fresh show of force that underscores the relentless cat‑and‑mouse campaign against the al‑Qaida‑linked insurgency. Details from the remote frontline remain sketchy. But multiple sources described precision strikes on Hareer…

Mandera’s uneasy morning: Allegations of Jubaland training on Kenyan soil test a fragile border On a normal school day, the dusty yard of Border Point 1 Primary in Mandera Town would fill with children in blue uniforms and plastic sandals, their chalkboards listing multiplication tables and Swahili proverbs. Instead, the gates are shut. And this week, the school became the unexpected center of a regional security storm when Mandera County officials alleged that Jubaland regional forces from Somalia are training there—inside…

Somalia’s Aid Lifeline Tangled in Political Fight as Northeastern State Blocks Federal Relief to Area Cleared of ISIS Mogadishu — A political feud inside Somalia burst into public view this weekend, as the federal disaster authority accused the state of Northeastern State of blocking medical evacuations and emergency supplies to civilians and soldiers in a rugged northeastern district freshly pried from ISIS control. Mahmoud Moallim, Director-General of the Somali Disaster Management Agency (SODMA), said Northeastern State…

Kenya Bets Big on Khat as Its Somalia Lifeline Frays In the cool highlands of Meru, where khat bushes cling to the slopes like stubborn green lace, the leaf locals call miraa is not just a crop. It is a clock. By late morning, pickers hurry to fill baskets; by noon, bundles are racing toward airstrips; by afternoon, flights fan out over the Indian Ocean to quench a daily chew in Mogadishu and beyond. If the chain is disrupted by an argument in a boardroom or a checkpoint on a highway, thousands feel it—farmers in Meru,…

On Türkiye’s Victory Day, Somalia’s envoy stands beside Ankara — and a century of lessons ANKARA — Under a late-summer sky, the red-and-white flag that is never far from Turkish life seemed to stretch just a bit wider this weekend. Victory Day, marked every August 30, is an annual rite here — a day when schoolchildren learn again the name Dumlupinar and adults take an extra glance toward the statue of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. This year, amid the ceremonies and speeches, a guest from the Horn of Africa stepped forward to…